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Bruno D'Amicis - Desert star

This is one of my most sought-after and beloved images. On a starry winter night in the Sahara desert, as the moon rises, an adult fennec fox breaks the beam of a camera trap setup and takes a picture of itself. By combining a brief flash beam with a very long exposure (30 sec at f/4, ISO 3200), I managed both to get a sharp subject and a little of the amazing desert nocturnal sky. The camera trap setup had been placed along a wildlife trail and remained in function for almost one month. Until I wouldn’t master the technical side of it and overcome issue (sand, wind, rodents chewing cables) I didn’t manage to get anything good. Who said that camera trap is not nature photography, is misunderstanding it, I guess: it is tremendously difficult. The morning I checked my camera and saw this cuties popping out of the LCD it felt like Christmas.

Comments

Stunning Image Bruno !!! Congrats with it !!! Also congrats with the award you've received with the pictures of this subject ! Well done ! I have seen you will be one of the speakers at this year's WPotY in London. Setting up a camera trap is hard thing to do for sure, it gets underestimate !!! Kind regards Johan

In my own opinion as wildlife photographers we are allowed to use all the available tools... We must document the animal behavior, not bring back a "trophy"... Avoiding to disturb the subject of course. And camera trap is the perfect tool. Well done Bruno!